1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of scanning microscope systems. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a chromosome detector for a scanning microscope system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Scanning microscope systems for locating and counting leukocytes and red blood cells on prepared slides are well-known in the art as found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,417. Another automatic microscope scanning system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,457 using color detection for determining the presence of blood cells. However, neither of these prior art systems are useful for the automatic detection of chromosome spreads for karyotyping inasmuch as the criteria used to detect red and white blood cells is ineffective in accurately determining the presence of chromosome spreads in conventional media, e.g., amniotic fluid, pleural effusion, etc. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved scanning microscope system having a chromosome detector for automatically detecting the presence of chromosome spreads in a specimen under analysis.